Embers (Dark in You 4)

He curled her hair behind her ear. “The tension that’s been your best friend since we discovered the Horsemen existed.”

She sighed. “I really thought I’d be able to just relax now that they’re no longer a threat. I’m relieved that it’s all over, but I don’t know if I properly believe it yet. It’s weird not having danger hovering over our heads.”

“There’ll always be danger lurking, but I don’t think it’ll come too close to us. Not when I have a mate who can be absolutely terrifying when she chooses to be.”

Harper’s mouth curved. “So you fear me now. Good.”

He hesitated. “I’m not saying I fear you. But I’m conceding that you can be scary.”

She frowned, incredulous. “You still don’t fear me?”

“Of course not.”

“I sliced off that woman’s toes with a flaming stiletto blade, one by one … and you don’t find me scary?”

Fighting a smile, Knox rolled onto his back and draped her over him. “It’s hard to fear someone who once told me they loved me while bent over the toilet with vomit in their hair.”

Harper cringed. “Stop. You fear me. You do. Accept it.”

He skimmed his fingers through her hair, lips twitching. “You know, when you first told me you loved me, you shocked the absolute shit out of me.”

The memory made her smile. “I know. Back then, I hadn’t thought you’d ever feel the same, mostly because I hadn’t thought that ‘love’ was anywhere on your emotional scale.”

“It was on my scale a long, long time ago. But then that scale shrunk.” He’d become someone hard. Cold. He couldn’t say he was now either warm or cuddly, but he was no longer at risk of losing himself. And that was all because of the very person sprawled on top of him.

Knox caught her face between his hands. “I love you, baby. Always will.”

She kissed him. “I love you right back, so I’d say all is good.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. You love me, I love you, our son is safe, and you finally fear me. So all is definitely good.”

“I wouldn’t say that I f—”

“Just go with it, Thorne. Just go with it.”